1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a graphics card connector module, and a motherboard device having the same, more particularly to a graphics card connector module, and a motherboard device having the same adapted for use with at least one graphics card.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to the requirements for a computer microprocessor with an increased operating speed and a wider frequency bandwidth, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Express interface, which has a frequency bandwidth nearly twice that of a conventional PCI interface during upload or downward, has been proposed. A PCI-Express interface provides signal coupling over 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32 channels, and serves as a bus input interface for a graphics card.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional motherboard device 9 for a desktop computer is adapted for use with two graphics cards, and includes two PCI-Express slots 911, 912, each of which provides signal coupling over 16 channels (Channel 0˜channel 15), a processing unit 92 that supports data processing compatible with a Scalable Link Interface (SLI) standard and that is connected electrically to the PCI-Express slots 911, 912, and a switching unit 93 connected electrically to the PCI-Express slots 911, 912 and the processing unit 92 and operable so as to switch between a single-card processing mode, where one of the PCI-Express slots 911, 912 (for example, the PCI-Express slot 911) can provide signal coupling over the 16 channels, and a two-card processing mode, where the PCI-Express slot 911 provides signal coupling over eight (for example, the channels 0˜7) of the 16 channels and where the PCI-Express slot 912 provides signal coupling over the other eight (for example, the channels 8˜15) of the 16 channels.
As such, when the switching unit 93 is switched to the single-card processing mode while the graphics card 81 is coupled electrically to the PCI-Express slot 911, the processing unit 92 supplies data to the graphics card 81 via the PCI-Express slot 911 for processing the data, and the graphics card 81 then outputs the processed data to a display device 7. On the other hand, when the switching unit 93 is switched to the two-card processing mode while the graphics cards 81, 82 are coupled electrically and respectively to the PCI-Express slots 911, 912, the processing unit 92 supplies data to the graphics cards 81, 82 via the channels 0˜7 of the PCI-Express slot 911 and the channels 8˜15 of the PCI-Express slot 912, respectively, and the processed data by the graphics cards 81, 82 is integrated and outputted to the display device 7, thereby resulting in an increased operating speed during image processing. It is noted that, for the two-card processing mode, an image frame displayed on the display device is divided into an upper frame portion 71 corresponding to the processed data from the graphics card 81, and a lower frame portion 72 corresponding to the processed data from the graphics card 82.
In such a configuration, the two PCI-Express slots 911, 912 and the switching unit 93 are required for the conventional motherboard device 9 for a desktop computer to enable operation in the two-card processing mode.
Although a graphics card connector for a conventional portable computer can provide signal coupling compatible with the Mobile PCI-Express Module (MXM) formats, such as MXM-I, MXM-II and MXM-III, and is coupled electrically to a small graphics card compatible with one of the MXM-I, MXM-II and MXM-III formats, the graphics card connector cannot be applied to the aforesaid conventional desktop computer because of lack of suitable converting interface.